Watts1874

01/09/2026

A new start, another journey.

Will you guess our new destination for Watts1874's team?

The journey begins in St. Pancras London

31/08/2026

“Watts has the most beautiful wallpapers.” Sir John Betjeman

For Watts 1874 , Sir John Betjeman’s connection to the House was not simply intellectual. He was also a client.

His name appears in the historic Watts order books in the year 1951, where he is recorded as having chosen Jasmine and Pear, designs that remain part of the Watts 1874 collection today.

Betjeman had his own home decorated with Watts wallpapers, but one anecdote preserved within the House captures his character particularly well.
A former Watts employee recalled Betjeman arriving at the showroom one afternoon with his friend Cecil Beaton, apparently after a rather good lunch. Together, they set about creating a new colourway of the Victorian Bodley wallpaper.

It is a wonderfully evocative glimpse into the creative life surrounding Watts during the 20th century: poets, artists, architects and aesthetes encountering historic patterns as designs to be lived with, enjoyed and reinvented.

More than a century after Betjeman’s birth, Jasmine and Pear remain in the Watts collection, continuing the decorative story he so enthusiastically embraced.

31/08/2026

Saving Victorian Heritage

At a time when much Victorian architecture was dismissed as obsolete, Sir John Betjeman became one of its most eloquent defenders.

In 1958, he became a founding member of The Victorian Society, established to protect Victorian and Edwardian architecture and encourage a new appreciation of the buildings that had shaped Britain’s towns and cities.

Perhaps no campaign symbolises his legacy more powerfully than St Pancras Station in London. When the great Gothic Revival complex was threatened with demolition in the 1960s, Betjeman became one of the most recognisable voices fighting for its preservation.

The connection with Watts 1874 runs deeper still. The magnificent St Pancras Renaissance Hotel was designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott, father of Watts 1874 co-founder George Gilbert Scott Jr.

Saved from demolition and now celebrated as one of London’s great architectural landmarks, St Pancras embodies Betjeman’s remarkable legacy and passion for architectural heritage, a vision deeply connected to the history of Watts 1874.

29/08/2026

28/08/2026

Phoebe & Aperol presenting new collection Northanger & Camberwell

28/08/2026

🇬🇧 Celebrating what would have been Sir John Betjeman’s 120th birthday today, a key personality in the 20th-century story of Watts 1874, and in the history of English architecture as a whole.

Born on 28 August 1906, John Betjeman was a poet, writer, broadcaster and passionate observer of the English landscape. Appointed Poet Laureate in 1972, he had an extraordinary ability to find poetry in places others might overlook: Victorian churches, railway stations, suburban streets and the architecture of everyday life.

His affection for the buildings and decorative traditions of the 19th century came at a moment when Victorian design was deeply unfashionable. Through his writing, broadcasting and campaigning, Betjeman helped change public perceptions of an entire architectural era. 🏛⛪️

For Watts 1874, his story is particularly meaningful. His name appears in the House’s historic order books, one of many connections between the worlds of literature, architecture and decoration found within our archive.

 

📸 Sir John Betjeman. 1990-5036/16490 Science Museum Group Collection.

28/08/2026

Phoebe & Aperol are the four-legged companions of Jean and Marie-Séverine de Caraman Chimay, Studio Director and CEO of , proof that beautiful Passementerie isn't just for interiors.

Pictured too is the new collection with 'Camberwell' and 'Northanger' designs, inspired by the house's rich archive.

Find us in the Watts 1874 Showroom, at the heart of Second Floor, North Dome.

26/08/2026

Aperol and Phoebe enjoying the Art of Living Beautifully